January 23, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



81 



fessor Beecter said of these collections: Pro- 

 fessor Marsh "brought forth in such rapid 

 succession so many astonishing things that the 

 unexpected became the rule. The science of 

 vertebrate paleontology could not assimilate 

 new material so fast. . . . The constant stream 

 of vertebrate riches which, from 1868 to 1899, 

 flowed into the Peabody Museum from the 

 Eocky Mountain region had a similar bewilder- 

 ing effect upon Marsh, for it was impossible for 

 him to do more than seize upon what appealed 

 to him as the most salient. As a collector 

 Marsh was seen at his best, and the collections 

 he amassed during his forty-five years and 

 more of activity in this direction form a last- 

 ing monument to his perseverance and fore- 

 sight." 



In Marsh's day, Peabody Museum was a very 

 busy place, with a large staff unearthing and 

 preparing the coUeobions so that the master 

 mind might make the treasures known to sci- 

 ence. At least 400 new species and 185 new 

 genera were described in abbreviated form 

 previous to 1896, mainly in the American Jour- 

 nal of Science. In 1892 came the first check 

 to his activity, and Marsh had to let go a con- 

 siderable portion of his staff. He was then 

 sixty-one years of age, but he struggled on, 

 thinking that somehow he could describe the 

 great mass of still unknown animals assembled 

 in the museum, and make them fully known 

 in large monographs Seven years later the 

 Great Reaper took him, with his work still 

 imdone. 



Professor Charles E. Beecher took up the 

 work after Marsh's death, but he had no one 

 to assist him in unearthing the collections 

 except two preparators. Even under these 

 conditions, however, the public were shown 

 for the first time the skeletons of some of the 

 wonderful animals of the past mounted as 

 they appeared in life. The exhibition collec- 

 tions grew apace, and long before Professor 

 Schuchert succeeded Beecher in 1904, they 

 had outgrown the building. Two years later 

 Professor Lull was added to the staff. Now 

 we have mounted or ready to mount so many 

 of our treasures that we are yearning for the 

 new Peabody Museum, to take the place of the 



original building which was destroyed in 1917 

 to make way for the Harkness dormitories. 



Professor Marsh left $30,000 "to be ex- 

 pended by the trustees of said Peabody Mu- 

 seum in preparing for publication and pub- 

 lishing the results of my explorations in the 

 West." The trustees have heretofore held 

 that only the income of this fund should be 

 used in this way. However, having only this 

 income to devote to the Marsh Collections, it 

 was but natural that progress should be slow. 

 We have now come to realize this fully, and 

 the recognition has brought use to a new turn 

 in the administration of the collections. 



As it was evidently Professor Marsh's wish 

 that both the income and the principal of the 

 " Marsh Publication Fund " should be used 

 in work on his collections, the trustees of the 

 museum have recently decided to spend as 

 much of the fund as will be required to make 

 known the collections. The study of the 

 Marsh material is therefore progressing far 

 more rapidly than it has at any time since the 

 donor's death. We have now on the staff of 

 the mxiseum, working imder the guidance of 

 Professor Lull, besides the two preparators, 

 the following research associates: Dr. George 

 F. Eaton and Assistant Professor John P. 

 Buwalda, who give us half their time, and 

 Drs. Edward L. Troxell and Malcolm E. 

 Thorpe, who devote all their time to the 

 Marsh collections. 



In imearthing the imknown in science, no 

 one can predict what the results wiU be, or 

 how quickly they will be forthcoming, but we 

 trust that in this case they will be abundant 

 and timely. In working out the new things, 

 however, we have also to consider the old ones, 

 which, viewed in the light of the knowledge 

 of to-day, were inadequately described. How 

 vast are the treasures that Professor Marsh 

 has left us is not even at this time fully 

 known to the curators, but if it should take 

 from ten to twenty years more to complete 

 the description of the fossil vertebrate mate- 

 rial assembled by Professor Marsh, Tale will 

 but be the richer scientifically. 



Charles Schuchert 



Tale TJNivi»siTT 



